Shelah Barr massages Pico's paw during a recent visit. Shelah Barr massages dogs for a living. She visits with Pico, a 13 year old Golden Retriever, in San Francisco, Calif. Thursday July 1, 2010.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Shelah Barr massages Pico's paw during a recent visit. Shelah Barr...

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Shelah Barr smiled as she reflected on her unique profession. Shelah Barr massages dogs for a living. She visits with Pico, a 13 year old Golden Retriever, in San Francisco, Calif. Thursday July 1, 2010.

It's a sad day when Rusty can't climb the stairs. When Tucker can't chase his silly ball anymore. Or when Mona's hip dysplasia is so advanced she just hobbles along, step by painful step.

Shelah Barr sees aging and injured dogs every day. Doing business as Happy Hounds Massage, she's a licensed massage therapist who works exclusively on small animals. She sees a cat occasionally - and has treated a ferret and a chinchilla - but says 98 percent of her cases are canine. Barr, 51, massaged people for 10 years before she went to the dogs. She is single and lives in the Castro district with her dog, Bunny, a tiny shih tzu-Yorkie-poodle mix.

I can tell when a dog is enjoying a massage. I see a lot of dogs smiling. It's funny to see, but it's definitely a smile. They wag their tails, groan, roll around, jump up and kiss me. Most of the time they just fall asleep.

It's a different kind of touch for them. It feels good, like petting, but at times it's clinical - like an exam. They don't know if I'm supposed to be playing with them, taking them for a walk or taking their temperature. It's a learning process.

I'm based in San Francisco and have a "by appointment" house-call practice. It's better for the animals if I work with them where they're comfortable. No matter how long I've been working with the dog, I like to have the owner present.

I'm mostly seeing overactive muscle strain and age-related conditions. Dysplasia, arthritis. Massage won't reverse the aging process, but what it can do is slow it down and help keep your pet active for a longer period of time. It makes them feel better.

I also see a lot of younger, more active dogs with minor injuries like a strain or sprain. All animals are athletes in their own way. Dogs are the rugby players of the animal-athlete world, so they get the widest variety of injuries. But since not showing pain is a survival mechanism, dogs are especially guilty of hiding their pain and discomfort.

I've been doing this work for about five years. Before that, I did massage therapy for people, specializing in structural and functional corrections. I worked on carpal tunnel and thoracic outlet syndromes, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, sports injuries.

It's such a funny thing: I didn't make a conscious decision to work with dogs. The decision was made more by the animals, and I just went with the flow. I went through this phase where dogs were walking up to me on the street, in stores, everywhere I went. They would lean and push on me, and when I'd reach down to pet them, I could feel they were injured or had some problem.

So I started looking at animals the way I was trained to look at people - in terms of form, function, structure and movement. I went back to school at the Northwest School of Animal Massage in Washington state and learned about small animals' anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and behavior. I had no idea that dogs have an actual language they use and their own behavioral protocols. Understanding that helps me communicate with them better.

Dogs are easier than people in that their reactions are pure. They have no social barometer that colors how they respond.

But working on smaller animals is physically harder and more challenging than working with people. With people, it's easier to use your whole body to create the movements and strokes used in massage. With animals, even a very large dog, you don't have as much body to work with, so the tendency is to rely unfairly on your upper body to create smaller, more concentrated movements.

In school I was told to put the dog on a table so you're standing up and they're at stomach or chest level. That would be easier for me, but as soon as you put your pet on a table, they think they're at the vet's and something unpleasant is about to happen to them. The other issue is, I don't like the dog's head or face to be near mine. The gentlest dog in the world could snap, if for example a spot is extra sensitive, and I don't want my face or neck near their mouth.

Through massage, dogs can actually regain a great deal of range of motion. I worked on this one dog for half an hour, did a whole body massage and worked on his feet quite a bit. They were contracted and almost completely immobile. He got up when I was done, ran across the room and lay down in the corner and was chewing on a bone. I didn't think anything of it. But then his "mom" said he hadn't done that in months - couldn't hold anything in his paws.

That was years ago, but I never forgot it. I was so happy for the dog.